Wolves and Witches
by Sparkles66
Summary: The pack has been offered a position at Hogwarts as extra security, after all Harry Potter has been getting into trouble since he was a year old you can never be too careful. While some decline and stay back to guard La Push others accept. There they meet a young girl who will have a great impact on their lives, Hermione Granger. (eventual Seth/Hermione)
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: For the sake of this story Jacob did not imprint on Renesmee and there is no Breaking Dawn part two. Jake still left the pack with Leah and Seth but when Renesmee was born instead of the two packs fighting it was determined that she was not a threat and the two packs made up and merged into one again. I hope you enjoy.

* * *

 _Seth POV_

Well I can honestly say I never would have believed something like this could be real. Then again there was a time I thought turning into a wolf the size of a horse was impossible too so if that's real why not this.

Maybe I should explain what the heck I'm talking about. My name is Seth Clearwater I'm fifteen years old and I'm a shape shifter, a wolf shape shifter to be exact. After Bella had her baby and was turned into a vampire we found out that Renesmee wasn't a threat and Sam backed off. After that Jacob finally got some sense and got over Bella and the two packs merged again and Jake gave up his new position of alpha to Sam after deciding he had to interest in leading a pack. Anyway after all that mess was cleared up everything went back to normal for a while and not long after all the drama died down, the Cullens moved again. That's when the owl showed up.

No joke an actual owl came knocking on the window to Sam's house when the pack was over for dinner. Emily finally sent someone to go see what was knocking against the window and when Paul opened it the owl flew right over his head just barely missing him and landed on the table in front of Sam and then stuck out it's leg which had, of all things, a letter tied to it.

Now here's where things get really crazy. Sam takes the letter from the bird and unties it, at which point the owl hops across the table and takes the roll Brady had in his hand when he froze from shock when the bird initially flew in. The letter is from this guy named Albus Dumbledore and it explains all about witches and wizards and the wizarding world. So this Dumbledore guy tells us he's actually a wizard himself and he's heard about us shape shifters and that he knows about our transformation and wants to offer us a position at Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry as extra protection for the students or something like that and said that the owl would wait for us to respond.

So the next thing you know all the elders are at Sam and Emily's place too and we're all discussing this. Billy mentions vaguely knowing about witches and wizards and basically confirms the letter is legit and he has some distant cousin in London or something who actually come from a wizarding family but he hasn't heard from any of them in years.

Now that we know this isn't all some huge joke and nobody took the time to train and owl just to mess with us, even though that would be a pretty good prank. Well, I for one thought it was a cool idea and was all for going and I wasn't the only one who thought it was a once in a lifetime opportunity and was all for it. Some of the others however not so much. We needed some people to stay back in case any vampires or anything actually did happen to come around, even though we hadn't seen any since the Cullens left but we couldn't leave the reservation unprotected. In the end it was decided that Quill (who didn't want to be separated from his imprint Claire). Colin, Brady, and Jared would stay behind and Sam, Emily, Leah, Jake, Paul, Embry, and I would go to Hogwarts- and, what Jake pointed out was probably against Sam's better judgement, Quil would be in charge of the younger boys until they got back.

So we send a letter back telling the headmaster of Hogwarts (that's Dumbledore) that we accept and the owl flies off after taking a potato from Jake's plate with it.

A few days later another owl comes and brings us a letter explaining how we're going to get there and when and all that. The next day Dumbledore came himself through the fireplace! He used this thing called floo powder and said it's one of the forms of magical transportation. Cool right? So he takes us to Hogwarts and let's us get settled in then he gives us a tour and introduces us to the teachers, that Snape guy is creepy. We had a week to get used to the castle before the students came back for school and we were all pretty good with getting around but the moving staircases still get us lost sometimes.

So that leads us to where we are now, in the great hall of Howarts school while all the second through seventh year students are walking in and taking seats at their house tables. There was a lot of people pointing at us and whispering. That's kind of expected though considering there are suddenly seven new people sitting in here that none of these kids have ever seen before. Dumbledore explained to us how there are four houses; Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin. Anyway they all walk in and Dumbledore walks up to the podium at the front of the head table and welcomes the students back then calls for McGonagall to bring in the fourth years so that they can be sorted. The frightened looking eleven year olds come filing in and stand off to the side in a large group. They start going up one by one and get sorted into their houses. It's taking forever so I started looking around and end up staring at the enchanted ceiling they told us about, how it's charmed to show the weather outside.

Well I got pretty distracted by it and totally zoned out of the sorting until Jake elbowed me in the gut. I glared at him. "What was that for?" I whispered.

He pointed in the direction of the stool that the kids sat on to get the sorting hat put on their head. "That girls been up there for about two minutes now, no one else has taken anywhere near that long."

I turned my head to look at the stool and saw a short girl with bushy brown hair and chocolate brown eyes. As soon as I looked into those eyes it wasn't the earth holding me here anymore it was her. I knew in that second that I would always protect, be whatever she needed me to be.

Oh man, I just imprinted.

I couldn't take my eyes off of her and barely registered when the hat finally yelled out "Gryffindor" but I couldn't help but smile as her face lit up and she took the hat off and ran to go sit at her house table.

I was snapped out of my daze when Jake elbowed me again. My head snapped away from him and to the left where Jake and Leah were staring at me with wide eyes.

"Did you just?" Leah asked, the end of her question going unsaid but I knew what she was asking. All I could do was nod dumbly at her and I vaguely saw Leah and Jake look at each other before my eyes drifted back to her.

"Hermione" Leah said.

I shook my head and looked back at her "What?"

"Hermione, that's her name. Hermione Granger." Jake clarified.

"Hermione" I said, trying the name out for myself. It was different but in a good way, unique. I already knew it suited her perfectly.

I watched as she interacted with the others at her table, though she didn't seem to be alking much with any of the other first years, and didn't even know until later on when Leah told me that the others were casting odd looks my way throughout the rest of the sorting. I didn't pull my gaze away again until the last first year was sorted and Dumbledore stepped back up to the podium.

"Now students first I would like to welcome you all back, and to our new student welcome to Hogwarts. This year we have added a few more people onto our staff team. First of all is our new Defense Against the Dark Arts instructor, Professor Quirrel." He stopped and there was polite applause before he started back up again.

"Also joining us this year is the Quileute pack of shapeshifters from America. Let me introduce Sam Uley, Jacob Black, Embry Call, Leah Clearwater, Seth Clearwater, and Paul Lahote. Along with Emily Young. They will be here to ensure the protection of our students so do not be alarmed if you see some rather large wolves roaming around the castle or the school grounds. Now I expect you all to give our new friends your utmost respect. They can give or take away house points the same as one of your professors and they can give out detention if they see fit to do so."

Dumbledore paused once again for the applause, ours slightly louder than that for the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. "And finally a few announcements. I would like to inform our new students and remind a few of our older ones" at this point her directed his gaze to what looked to be a pair of twins sitting by Hermione at the Griffindor table who just smirked back at him. "and a list of banned items is posted outside of Mr. Filch's office. Also the third floor corridor on the right hand side is off limits to anyone who does not wish to die a very painful death."

My head flew to look at the man as did several others around me including the rest of the pack and Emily to see if he was serious. He was. I felt an urge to keep Hermione away from that corridor, protect her from whatever was so dangerous about that corridor but she didn't even know who I was yet. I would change that, I would be her friend, her protector, whatever she wanted me to be.

The feast then appeared and everyone dug in. After everyone was content and full Dumbledore spoke up one more time. "Now before we head off to bed I would like to say a few words. "Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you, now prefects please direct the first years to your respective common rooms." We waited for the hall to empty before leaving for our own rooms.

We had a common room of our own but instead of dorms we each had rooms that connected off of it. Our common room had two couches, a love seat, and an arm chair. In the center was a coffee table and at the front of the room was a fireplace with a large soft rug in front of it. When we stepped through the portrait that gave us access to the common room I tried to make my way to my own room but was stopped by Embry grabbing my arm and dragging me to the couch. "Spill" he demanded.

"Hermione Granger" I said feeling the dopey smile spread across my face but couldn't find it in me to care.

Embry and Paul gave me odd looks. "What?" they both asked.

"That first year Hermione Granger, I imprinted on her."

Emily was the first one to react. "Oh Seth that's amazing I'm so happy for you!" she said and sat next to me on the couch to hug me before walking back over to Sam who wrapped his arm around her waist. Leah smiled at me from across the room and the rest of the guys slapped me on the back.

Jake sat next to me and kicked his legs up on the coffee table momentarily before receiving a scathing look from Emily and promptly dropping them back to the floor. "Well there's only one thing for you to do now." He said avoiding Emily's warning gaze gaze.

"Yeah, What's that?" I asked scrunching my eyebrows.

He back handed me to the head. "Talk to her."

"Well yeah obviously!" The rest of the guys laughed while Emily and Leah rolled their eyes at us. As the excitement of the news of my imprinting began to die down everyone separated to go to bed.

I couldn't wait because tomorrow I would introduce myself to and befriend Hermione. With that thought on my mind I fell asleep with a smile on my face.

* * *

 _ **AUTHORS NOTE:**_

ages of characters:

Seth- 15  
Jacob- 17  
Embry- 17  
Leah- 20  
Paul- 20  
Sam- 21  
Emily- 21

Hogwarts students start Trio's first year and ages remain cannon


	2. Chapter 2

_No POV_

The next morning the Pack had all woken up and prepared for the day. Now they were sitting in the common room.

"Hey, so I was thinking we should all sit at the different tables today. You know so the students can get to know us and won't be afraid to come to us with any problems." Emily suggested from her seat on the love seat next to Sam.

"Yeah and then Seth can get to Know Hermione." Embry sang the last part before he was hit in the face with the pillow Seth threw at him.

After a quick glare to the older boy Seth turned to Emily with a smile. "I think it's a great idea." There were similar consents around the room.

"So it's settled then. Jacob and Seth can sit with the Gryffindors, Leah and Paul with the Slytherins, Embry with the Hufflepuffs, and Emily and I will sit with the Ravenclaws." Sam designated tables as he looked around the room.

They all filed out of the room and made their way down to the great hall.

* * *

 _Seth POV_

We walked into the great hall I looked around the lion's table for her head of bushy curls. She was sitting by herself away from the rest of the students and had her eyes downcast looking at the table. I frowned at this and shot a look to Jake. She looked sad and alone. Not for long, I won't let her feel alone.

I walked to the table in quick strides with Jake following behind me while the others went off to their own designated tables.

Jake and I sat on either side of her. "Hi there. I'm Seth." I said smiling at her. She turned to look at me, seemingly shocked that I was there.

"And I'm Jacob but most people call me Jake."

"Umm" she looked Flustered as she glanced back and forth between the two of us.

"Normally the next step is to tell us your name." Jake prompted her as I gave her what I hope was an encouraging smile.

"Hermione" she whispered. "What are you doing here?"

"What?" Jake asked in mock shock. "Can't we just talk to a pretty girl?" If it were even possible she went even redder and didn't seem to know what to say.

"We're gonna be around the school so we thought we'd come and make a friend. That is if that's okay with you?" I rested a hand on her shoulder. She looked at me for a moment as if she didn't believe what I had just said.

"But, why me?" I didn't expect that question and from the look Jake gave her he hadn't either.

"Why not you?" Jake fired back at her.

"Well back at home I didn't really have any friends. All the kids I went to school with thought I was weird and nobody wanted to be around me and the girls in my dorm don't want anything to do with me either." Her blush had gone by this point and a defeated look covered her face instead, I preferred the blush.

I squeezed her shoulder to get her to look back at me. "Well I think that's their loss and anyone would be lucky to be your friend. So what do you say Hermione, friends?" on her other side Jake nodded along. She looked at both of us again before a smile graced her lips.

"Friends" she agreed.

"Great!" Jake summed up. "So tell us about yourself, new friend. What was life like before you found out you were a witch?"

"Well I didn't really have anyone to hang out with so I read a lot." she admitted.

"What about your family?" I asked her. Wanting to learn more about her.

"I'm an only child and both of my parents are dentists. What about you two?"

I went first. "Well I grew up on the La Push reservation in Washington. I have one sister, Leah who's also part of the pack, and my mom Sue. Dad died a few years ago." She looked sympathetic for a moment but before she had a chance to say anything Jake started talking.

"I grew up on the La Push reservation too. I have two older sisters, Rebecca and Rachel, and my dad Billy. Mom died when I was little."

She looked even sadder now."I'm so sorry for both of your losses."

Jake shrugged his shoulders with a friendly smile directed at her when I replied. "We miss them but life goes on. You just have to be happy with the people you care about while you can." she nodded along to what I said in agreement.

An inquisitive look crossed her face and she seemed to debate whether or not to ask a question. "Can you tell me more about the pack?"

"Sure" Jake told her. "Well there's me and Seth, Leah, Sam, Paul, and Embry then back home are Brady, Colin, Jared, and Quil. When we shifted we got stronger and faster and when we're in our wolf form we can hear each other's thoughts. We started shifting a few years ago with Sam being the first and Colin being the last. We started shifting when vampire's started coming around La Push, we're the reservations protectors."

I cut in wanting to add my own input. "Not all of the vampires were bad though. There was the Cullen Coven who are vegetarian vampires, so they only drink from animals, and we have a treaty with them to keep the peace but recently some of us became friends with them. Anyway they moved away and there haven't been any vampires coming around since so that's why most of us were able to come here."

"Wow, that's amazing." we both laughed at this. Jake cleared his throat to gain attention. "Now it's my turn to ask a question. How old are you?

"I'm eleven but I turn twelve soon."

"When?" he asked.

"September nineteenth."

"Wow that is soon." I said.

She giggle. "How old are you guys?"

Jake answered this one. "I'm seventeen, Seth is fifteen, Leah and Paul are twenty, Embry is seventeen, and Sam and his Fiance Emily are twenty-one." she nodded again and was about to speak when Professor McGonagall walked up to her.

"Miss Granger, your time table." the stern witch handed Hermione a sheet of paper and the girl in question let out a small thank you before turning to look at it, Jake and I reading over her shoulders.

She examined her schedule and then glanced over to the clock hanging on the wall. She had ten minutes to get down to the greenhouse for herbology. "Well I guess you better head to class and we'll see you later, yeah?"

She smiled the brightest I've seen her smile, even brighter than when she was sorted into Gryffindor. "Yeah" and she got up grabbed her bag from Jake who held it up for her and was out the doors.

* * *

All of the students were in class by now and Jake and I met back up with the rest of the pack. We were currently walking the halls working on getting ourselves better acquainted with the layout of the school.

"So how'd it go with the imprint Seth?" Embry threw his arm around my shoulders as he spoke.

"She's great." I said, another admittedly dopey smile breaking out on my face. That seems to be happening a lot lately.

"Yeah but she's lonely. It doesn't take a whole lot of effort to see that." I sobered up at the reminder of just how alone my girl was but I would change that and from the look on Jake's face he would help too.

"She was sitting away from all the other students and told us back home she never had any friends and now the girls in her dorm don't want any part of her either."

"Oh the poor girl." Emily said sympathetically. "But that's going to change now because she has you Seth and the rest of us too. She's going to be around now and we're going to make her feel welcome."

"Why don't we all sit at the Gryffindor table for dinner and meet this girl, show her she doesn't have to be alone? I think we all knew what that felt like at one point." Leah suggested and after a moment everyone agreed. She was right, when we first started to shift, when we had no idea what was going on, every single one of us felt alone before we found out what was happening.

* * *

After what felt like an eternity- but Sam assures me was only a couple of hours- it was finally time to go down for dinner.

I spotted Hermione just sitting down and made my way over with the others all following behind me. I sat on her left and Jake on her right. To my left was Paul and across from us sat Emily, Sam, Embry, and Leah.

"Hey there Hermione." I greeted her.

She looked around at everyone that had just sat down with her and her eyes widened before looking to me and seeming to relax. "Hi." she mumbled in reply looking down so as to avoid seeing the others looking at her.

"Hermione, let me introduce you to the rest of the pack. On the Seth's other side is Paul, and across from me is Seth's sister Leah, Embry, and Sam and Sam's fiancé Emily." Jake introduced as he pointed out each person. She looked up now and they greeted her.

"It's so nice to meet you Hermione." Emily told her sweetly. "Seth told us about this amazing girl he and Jake met and we decided we had to meet you ourselves."

Hermione blushed when she heard this but smiled despite her obvious embarrassment. "It's lovely to meet you all... but you really don't have to stay here. I'm sure you have better things to do." By the end of her sentence her smile dropped and she still would not make eye contact.

"Hey" I said gently, throwing an arm arm over her shoulders. I waited until she turned and looked at me. "We're here because we want to be, okay? Besides, Paul has no life anyway." I joked and she let out a giggle along with the others, aside from Paul who just glared at me.

Emily was the first to compose herself. "Now Seth there's no need for that." though it was pretty obvious she thought it was funny considering she was laughing seconds ago. "And Hermione, Seth is right. We know we don't _have_ to be here but we _want_ to." Emily was right and I was going to make Hermione believe it too.

* * *

NO POV

"And Hermione, Seth is right. We _know_ we don't have to but we _want_ to." Emily said gently, looking at her with a somewhat sad look in her eyes. She couldn't help but think that the young girl had horribly low self confidence.

"So now that it's clear that we are all sitting where we want to be why don't we get to know each other a bit." Leah suggested. "I have a story about Seth that you're just going to love."

Seth grimaced and turned red as Leah went on to tell the story of the time he was annoying her when her friends were over so they duct taped his arms to his sides and over his mouth then locked him in the closet but she forget about him when her friends left. He ended up in there for four hours before they're parents got home and found him. She was grounded but still says it was totally worth it.

In retaliation Seth told Hermione about the time he put crushed dog in the cookies he and his mom were making when she wasn't looking and made sure Leah got the first one.

It went on like this with everyone telling stories throughout dinner. Jacob, who has no shame, proudly told her about how his two older sisters used to dress him up and do his make up then make him have tea parties with them. Embry told her about some of the trouble he used to get into with Jacob and Quil and the others told her about some of the tribe stories.

In turn Hermione told them some stories of her accidental magic growing up like turning her neighbors dog pink and making books fly to her from the top shelf she couldn't reach.

By the time Hermione finished her last story everyone was in hysterics and they were getting several odd looks from students and teachers alike but none of them noticed. They were too caught up in their conversation.

Their laughter was finally dying down as dessert disappeared and people started getting up to leave but they made no move to get up. They asked Hermione about her first day of classes and her face lit up. "It was amazing and, and, well magical. I never thought I'd experience anything like it. Professor Snape isn't exactly what I imagined as a professor though." The pack didn't need to ask what she meant they had already heard about Snape and even about Hermione's class that day when some students were talking in the halls that afternoon, all on top of actually meeting the guy themselves. Needless to say he wasn't the favorite person of any of them.

"Well what about the other students, did you make any friends in your classes?" Emily questioned cautiously, remembering what Seth had told them about her social life earlier.

"Er, well not really. I don't think any of them really like me." her face dropped again so the subjet was quickly changed and soon enough he was smiling again as they continued to talk until they were the last in the room.

"Well Hermione it was very nice meeting you. We'll have to do this again." Sam told her, making her face light up at the aspect of more friends. "I'd like that." she told them all honestly with a glimmer of hope that maybe, just maybe she won't be totally alone after all.

Paul nodded in agreement smirking while the others all agreed and Embry went so far as to shout out "TOTALLY!" Hermione giggled once more before getting up and following the flow of students out of the hall and back up to the Gryffindor common room.

* * *

After speaking with Dumbledore and the professors for a bit the pack finally retired back to their own common room.

"Well Hermione certainly seems like a very nice girl." Emily noted.

"Yeah but she obviously has major self esteem issues." Leah added in.

"Well can you really blame the kid?" Paul pointed out. "You heard what Seth told us and what she said herself. She doesn't have any friends. The kids at home were horrible and it doesn't sound like the ones here are any better. She's lonely."

Everyone went silent as they thought this through. Suddenly Seth sat up straight with an idea. "Hey Jake remember when she told us her birthday was on the 19th?" Seth asked the older wolf.

Jacob looked at him with confusion. "Yeah I remember that, but what does it have to do with anything?"

"Well what if we do something for her, show her that she may not have had friends back home but we're her friends now? We could throw her a little party."

The others started muttering before Sam coughed to get all of their attention. "That's a great idea Seth. We can make it a surprise."

With that decided some ideas were tossed around and then everyone went to bed.


	3. Chapter 3

It had been two weeks since school started and Hermione's birthday was only five days away. It was for that reason that as the pack patrolled the halls Seth's patrol group, including Emily, Sam, Leah, and himself, were discussing their plans

"Well why don't we decorate our common room and have the party there?" Emily suggested.

"Do you think she's comfortable enough around all of us for that?" Sam asked.

"I'd say so, she and Seth are practically inseparable whenever they're within ten feet of each other." Leah said with a sly look glancing toward her brother.

Seth for his part ignored the last part of her comment, neither admitting nor denying the truth to her statement. "Leah's right there's a big difference in her now than the first time Jake ad I talked to her. I think she'll be fine with it, even appreciate it. Show her she has a place with us."

"Well it's settled then. I'll stop her on her way down to dinner and take her up there instead."

"Okay. So no we have the place we just need to worry about decorations, cake, and pre-" Emily's stopped her list abruptly as she heard a voice a few feet behind her.

"Hi guys."

The group of four turned around and smiled at the bushy haired girl they had just been talking about. "Hey Hermione." Seth said giving her a side hug as she got close enough.

"What are you guys talking about?" she asked them looking around curious as ever.

They looked at each other over her head and then looked away again before she could even notice. "Just the schedule for our patrol rounds Professor Dumbledore assigned us earlier this morning, no big deal." Leah told her and Hermione seemed to be appeased by this answer. "What's up with you, you just finished potions right?"

Hermione cast her eyes to the ground and mumbled out "Yeah"

They didn't look away when their eyes met over her head this time. "What happened sweet heart?" Emily asked her as they moved out of the middle of the hallway and toward a less crowded corridor.

Seth moved to kneel down next to her. "What happened princess?" That was one of the nicknames he had started and the others quickly came to refer to her as too, despite her protests to the name and her claims of 'I'm not', they said she was Gryffindor's princess.

She took a deep breath and retold the story of what happened in that days potions class. "Well Professor Snape was asking questions and he was ignoring me like usual but when nobody got the answer right he finally called on me. I got it right and then Lavender told Parvati that I was a swotty little know it all and everyone heard and most of them starte laughing at me and the ones that didn't just gave me pitying looks because they know it's true and they know that nobody likes me. I just want to prove that I belong here even though I'm not from a magical family but I just don't fit in. Nobody likes me or even wants anything to do with me. I worked so hard because I thought things would be different here but this is even worse than it was at home. I didn't belong there because I had magic but now that I'm here I don't belong because I'm not magic enough." tears were streaming down her face now no matter how hard she was trying to hold them back. Luckily the halls had cleared out by this point. Even people like Harry who don't openly ake fun of me still don't want to so much as talk to me."

"Hey hey" Seth said gently as he hugged her and she cried into his shoulder. "Hermione listen to me." she looked up at him, starting to get her breathing back under control. "First of all that's not true and there are people that like you, we all like you. They're just jealous of you because you're so smart and pretty and amazing. You're going to do great things one day."

"You really think so" She had a hopeful look on her still tear stained face.

"I know you will." As soon as the words were out of his mouth Hermione had thrown her arms around his neck and hugged him tight.

She whispered to him, though Leah and Sam could hear and were sure to tell the others later, "You're my best friend Seth."

Seth smiled and then whispered back to her. "And you're mine."

"Hermione." Sam's gentle yet strong tone had her meeting his eyes. "Seth is right, you have so much potential and you put your mind to it. You have what so many people don't. You have determination but you also believe. Even if you don't always realize it yourself you believe in what you do and deep down I think you believe in yourself more than you think."

Leah and Emily shared similar sentiments and by the time they were done hermione was smiling again.

Hermione smiled at them all in turn again and wiped at her eyes once more before hugging them all and thanking them then continued on her way to lunch, where Paul and Jake were waiting for her.

* * *

Hermione had just finished lunch and was heading outside with the rest of the Gryffindor and Slytherin first years for flying lessons. When they got outside they saw Madam Hooch standing in front of two rows of brooms. Everyone stood beside a broom and waited for her to give them their instructions.

Hermione wasn't really sure how she felt about the flying lessons. All of her other lessons she was able to prepare for. You can't experience flying by reading a book. Hermione took a deep calming breath and focused on what the flying instructor was saying.

"Okay!" Hooch hollard, putting everyone's attention on her. "Raise your right arm over the broom and firmly say 'up'"

Everyone began doing just that. "Up" Hermione said with determination. The broom hovered a couple of inches off the ground for a moment before dropping back down. Looking around her Hermione saw that both Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy had already gotten their brooms in the air and were now holding them in their hands.

Hermione thought about what Seth had said to her earlier that day. About hw she was determined but also about how she had to reach down within herself and believe in herself and her magical ability. She had to believe that she really did belong here.

Once more Hermione clearly said "Up!" and the broom flew up into her hand. She looked at the broom in shock for a second before smiling and looking toward the rest of her classmates. She had ended up being one of the first few to get her broom in the air.

In the next couple of moments the rest of the class were holding their brroms as well. Though Ron Weasley had ended up smacking himself in the face before barely catching it. Hermione simply rolled her eyes while the others laughed and Weasley scowled.

From there things started to get out of hand. At first everything seemed fine. Madam Hooch showed them how to mount their brooms and told them on her count they were to push off from the ground and hover in the air until she gave further instruction.

That's where things went down hill. It would seem that Neville was so nervous he kicked off too early and then started to panic further when he kept rising off the round unable to control the broom. Madam Hooch started shouting at him to get back down but that only proved to scare him further and the next thing anyone knew Neville was plummeting to the ground where he crashed with a harsh sounding snap. Hooch ran to his side to look at the damage herself before determining he needed to see Madam Pomfrey to fix his now broken wrist.

She helped him up and guided him to the hospital wing but not before warning the rest of the class that if they so much as hovered in the air before she got back they would be expelled.

You would think that a threat like that would keep everyone on the ground. But then you have Draco Malfoy, who couldn't help himself and decides to be a prat and take Neville's dropped remembrall. Harry Potter being Harry Potter immediately went to his injured friends aid and demanded Malfoy give it back. Of course though, this is Malfoy, and that was the last thing he planned to do. So now Malfoy's on a broom in the air taunting Harry who grabs a broom himself.

Genuine concern for her housemate had Hermione stepping up to Harry as he mounted his broom. "Harry no, you heard what Madam Hooch said. Besides, you don't even know how to fly." Harry gave her a disdainful glance that had her stepping away from him hurt. She was only trying to help him. Harry kicked off the ground to the cheers of the other Gryffindors "What an idiot." Hermione said to herself.

It turned out Harry actually could fly very well. He seemed to have a natural talent, having never even been on a broom before now. The boy who lived flew after Malfoy, dove for the remembrall when he threw it, and caught the object before landing on the ground where Malfoy was already smirking at something in the distance. Everyone found out just what he was smirking at when Professor McGonagall showed up spluttering and demanding that Harry follow her.

Hermione would later find out that instead of being punished like they had all been told they would be Harry Potter was made the newest member of the Gryffindor quidditch team as a seeker. He would be the youngest player in a century.

* * *

Shortly after McGonagall walked off with Harry Madam Hooch was seen walking back toward the rest of her students, stopping only for a brief word with the transfiguration professor before continuing down the field.

"Okay now let's get back to our lesson and try to avoid any more incidents. Let's go mount your brooms."

Everyone did as they were told and mounted their brooms once again. The lesson went on from there with no more major incidents other than some student knocking into others when their brooms veered to the side too much.

Hermione made sure to stay far enough from the others that she wouldn't be hit, and to make sure none of the Slytherins could hit her and claim it was an accident.

She really hadn't done too bad but she thought she could have done better. She was shaky on her broom at first and couldn't help but compare herself to Harry who hadn't even needed to think about what he was doing. It wasn't that she was bad she just wanted to do better. It was then she decided she would come back out later and practice more on her own.

* * *

Hermione glanced around her at the surrounding area to make sure she was alone as she made her way to the broom shed. The last thing she needed for one of the other first years to see her and make fun of her for this too. Not only was she not the best at flying but she was sure they would mock her for what was essentially 'studying' how to fly.

Seeing that she was the only one around Hermione walked the rest of the way to the broom shed and took out a broom. She exited the shed and walked a good distance away from it, it wouldn't end too well if she were to crash into it.

deep breath, in and out, okay. Hermione mounted the broom and kicked off the ground to hover about a foot in the air. She floated around like that for a bit before gradually rising higher and higher. Her flying was shaky at first but as she relaxed she found that she was getting the hang of it and she evened out.

Hermione was having the time of her life. She felt so free, like nothing could take her down from up here. nobody could hurt her from the sky.

Everything was going great. Before she knew it Hermione had been flying around for over an hour. Hermione closed her eyes and focused on the wind rushing her face and tousling her hair. In the back of her mind she registered an odd screech in the distance. "Hermione look out!" Someone shouted jarring her into awareness. Opening her eyes she barely had time to register the owl flying straight at her before she jerked to the side and lost her balance. In seconds she was falling to the ground that was a good thirty feet away. She squeezed her eyes shut and braced herself for the impact of the cold ground but it never came.

* * *

Seth, Jake, and Paul were walking the grounds of Hogwarts on the cool September night.

"So while we finish setting up Sam's going to go and find Hermione before she gets to the great hall for dinner and take her back to the common room instead and then we're going to surprise her with the party?" Jake confirmed.

"Yup. When we see her in the morning we'll say happy birthday but we have to make sure she doesn't suspect anything else." Seth confirmed.

"No problem. If we can keep being shape shifters a secret from the whole town of Forks I think we can keep a surprise party a secret from a twelve year old girl for a few more days." Paul said as they kept walking.

"Yeah well- hey what's that?" Seth and Paul followed Jacob's gaze off into the distance.

"I think it's someone flying a broom." Paul squinted at the figure.

"Wait a second, guys I think that's Hermione." Seth told them.

"What's she doing?" Jake asked.

"Well considering she's in the air and looks like she's sitting on a stick I think it's safe to say she's flying on one of the brooms." Paul stated mockingly. Jake glared at him and the three waked closer.

They walked until they were below her but she didn't seem to notice. She had her eyes shut as she circled around above their heads. For a while they just watched as she flew around but thenn they heard a strange noise off in the distance. Looking away from the girl they had all become attached to they saw a rather large owl flying right towards and didn't appear to be moving out of her way.

"Hermione look out!" Seth called out to her.

Hermione opened her eyes in time to see the owl just barely manged to jerk her broom out of the way. Unfortunately in doing so she lost her balance and wasn't able to keep a hold on the broom. Before their eyes Hermione slipped off of the broom and was falling, a terrified scream escaping her lips as her eyes shut in fear.

Seth's heart stopped as he saw his imprint drop out of the sky. Without a word he was racing across the distance separating Hermione from them and once he was close enough transformed and jumped into the air so she landed on his back. Seth touched back down to the ground, making sure Hermione was still okay.

By now Jacob and Paul were beside them. Paul pulled Hermione off Seth's back and set her back on solid ground where she immediately sat down breathing heavily and silently crying. Paul held her and tried to sooth her from the traumatic experience. "Hey hey it's okay, you're fine now. Seth got you down, it's okay now."

Hermione looked to Seth who was watching her concerned still in his wolf form. She flun herself into him and continued to cry. Seth whimpered and nuzzled at her head.

Jake knelt down with Hermione. "Come on Hermione Paul and I are going to take you up to the hospital wing and have Madam Pomfrey check you over and Seth can change back and meet us up there okay."

Hermione was reluctant to let go of Seth but with a slight nudge from him stood up but was still shaking so much that Jake picked her up and carried her to the hospital wing with Paul.

Seth watched them until they were out of sight before running off back to the pack's common room passing a couple students on the way whose eyes widened at the sight of him but he ignored them all.

He arrived at the portrait and barked out the password. The portrait sprung open and Seth raced through to his room getting a shocked look from Emily who was just walking into the common room but he didn't even give her a second glance.

Seth transformed back and changed in record time and rushed back out only to be stopped by Emily grabbing onto the back of his shirt. "Emily let go of me!" Seth shouted at her.

"Not until you tell me why you came running in here as a wolf and why you're now trying to run back out again. What happened?"

"Jake, Paul and I were patrolling outside and we saw Hermione riding around on a broom but then an owl came flying at her and she swerved so it wouldn't hit her but she lost her balance and fell so I transformed and jumped up to catch her and now Jake and Paul took her to the hospital wing and I have to go meet them there." He said all in one breath. Emily let go, eyes wide, and he was out the door with her following after him.

They made it to the infirmary in record time. Throwing open the doors Seth received a harsh look from Madam Pomfrey, as she looked over Hermione, that he ignored as he and Emily rushed to the first year's side.

As soon as Seth was in reach Hermione launched herself at him and he held her tight to him. The two of them talked as Madam Pomfrey went to get Hermione a calming drought and Jacob and Paul filled Emily in on a more detailed version of what happened.

"Are you okay Hermione?" All Hermione did in response was nod her head against his chest. Seth sighed in relief and held her closer.

"Thanks for saving me Seth." she mumbled into his chest.

"Anytime princess."

Emily, Jake, and Paul came back to Hermione's bed side now. "Are you sure you're all right Hermione?" Emily asked her as she sat down at the end of the bed.

"Yeah I'm fine now." she told her.

"Well next time you go flying just make sure someone else is around okay. Maybe then you won't take another ten years off my life." Jake said only half kidding.

"No!" she started to panic again. "Never again. I'm never flying again."

Seth and Emily glared at Jake as Paul hit him in the back of the head. "It's okay Hermione. You don't have to ever go near a broom again if you don't want to." Paul comforted her as he rubbed soothing circles on her back.

"Paul's right Hermione. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you." Jake apologized. Hermione nodded her forgiveness, still leaning against Seth. At that point Madam Pomfrey came back over with a calming drought and a sleeping drought.

"All right dear drink up." she handed Hermione first the calming potion and then the sleeping potion. In seconds Hermione shut her eyes and fell into a peaceful sleep.

"She can either stay here for the night or you can take her back up to her dorm room." Madam Pomfrey told them.

The four looked at each other before Emily spoke. "I think she'll be more comfortable waking up in her own bed." The nurse approved and walked back to her office as Seth picked Hermione up bridal style and the four of them took the sleeping witch back to the Gryffindor common room.

When they got to the portrait of the Fat Lady they told her the password and were given entrance, Dumbledore keeping them up to date with all the common room passwords. They walked in and saw everyone had already gone up to bed. It was probably for the best, they all doubted highly that Hermione would have appreciated a crowd right now.

Seth walked to the front of the staircase leading up to the girls dorms and stepped back as Jake walked forward and kicked the third step from the bottom. They hear a click and knew it was safe for the guys to climb without the stairs turning into a slide. Dumbeldore had told them about the fail safe to the stairs in case there was ever an emergency and a male member of staff had to get up the stairs to the girls dorms.

Seth quietly brought her upstairs while the others waited for him back in the common room. When Seth got to the right room he pushed the door open trying not to jostle the girl in his arms around too much. He glanced around the room and saw the other girls in her dorm were already asleep with the curtains closed around their beds and took her to the only one left open. He lay her down gently and pulled the blankets over her. Seth looked down at the sleeping girl and smiled. He leaned down and kissed her forehead before closing the curtains around her bed and walking back downstairs to rejoin the others.

Without another word they silently left the common room and went back to their own. when they went through the door Embry, Sam, and Leah were sitting around. "Where have you guys been?" Embry asked. No body answered right away. Seth plopped down onto a couch and with a sigh put his heads in his hands while the others looked to him.

After another moment Seth looked up. "I think I had my first heart attack."

"What happened?" Leah asked obviously concerned for her little brother.

"Seth is fine Leah, everyone's fine now but it was a bit of a close call." Emily assured her cousin as she sat down beside Sam.

"But what happened?" Sam questioned.

Jake and Paul sat down too before Jacob spoke up. "The three of us were doing our patrol rounds outside when we saw Hermione flying around on a broom and went to go watch her but then an owl came flying at her so she flew out of the way but lost her balance and fell."

Paul continued on where Jake left off. "So then Seth runs and phases so he can jump and catch her then when he got back down we tried to calm her down a little and took her to the hospital wing while Seth came back here to phase back and change."

Emily took off on what she knew. "Then when Seth got back I was just walking out of my and Sam's room and when he came running back out I grabbed him before he could leave again and he told me what happened so I went with him. Then we got there and saw that she was alright and Madam Pomfrey gave her calming and sleeping potions so she fell asleep."

Seth finished the story. "So then we went back to Gryffindor tower and I took her up to bed then we came back here. I have never been so scared in my life." Leah went to put an arm around her brother. "At least you were there to save her and she's okay now, that's what's important."

"Yeah but now she's terrified of flying though." Seth said.

"Well when we throw her the surprise party she won't be thinking about flying. She'll have fun and know that there are people here who care about her." Emily said finally.

There was an unspoken agreement between everyone in the room that this girl was special. They didn't particularly know why they all agreed on this. It wasn't because of Seth imprinting on her, or even the fact that they found themselves caring so much for this girl so quickly. No, all of that was true of course but it was something else too, she would be a part of something big.


	4. Chapter 4

Hermione blinked her eyes open and looked at the closed curtains of her four poster bed on the morning of September nineteenth. Her birthday. Hermione was officially twelve years old today. Not that she expected anyone to care or even realize it.

Hermione pulled the curtains around her bed back and looked to the foot of it to see box wrapped in red paper with a gold bow and a birthday card sitting on top. Hermione picked up the card to read it. The gift was from her parents and she smiled at their use of red and gold. As Hermione red her card she saw Lavender pull her curtains back and get out of bed. She glanced over to see what Hermione was holding and simply rolled her eyes when she saw the card in her hands before walking to the showers. Parvati didn't even glance at her as she made her bleary-eyed way to the bathroom to prepare for classes.

Hermione sighed to herself. She was right, nobody here cared. Hermione tried to lift her spirits by opening the gift her parents had sent her. Pulling the top off of the box Hermione reached inside and took out a journal, a set of quills she had seen when they went shopping for her school books, ink, and different colored pens. Looking once more in the box she saw a piece of paper lying at the bottom. Pulling that out as well she read it and smiled to herself.

 _Dear Hermione,_  
 _Happy birthday love! We miss you so much and hope you are having a wonderful day. We know you are going to a wizarding school now and saw you had your eye on these quills when we went to Diagon Alley but we also want to give you something to remind you of where you come from. So we also sent you the pens and a journal to keep all your thoughts in. We want to hear everything when you come home and don't want to miss any little detail._

 _Love,_  
 _Mum and Dad_

Hermione smiled at the letter and put it safely away in her trunk. Hermione quickly put her new pens, quills, and journal in her school bag before grabbing her own clothes for the day and heading off to the bathroom herself.

Hermione wouldn't admit it out loud but even though she had been expecting it she was still a little hurt that her roommates had so blatantly ignored her birthday. At least, she figured, she could spend the day with the pack. She wouldn't admit this either but she was particularly excited at the aspect of spending the day with Seth. He had quickly become her best friend and as much as she loved all the other wolves and Emily too there was just something about Seth that made her want to be around him.

After all he had not only been one of the first to talk to her at Hogwarts but he had also saved her life when she fell from the broom. Though they had all been concerned, which was made clear from the chewing out she got the next day about flying on her own after only one lesson, Seth had been the one she immediately wanted to see when she got to the hospital wing and refused to let him go once he got there.

A smile now donning her face once again Hermione finished preparing for her day and left the dorm room with a skip in her step and went down to breakfast to find the pack.

* * *

This day had not been going how Hermione had planned at all. Not only had her roommates and all the other Gryffindor first years ignored her, most probably not even realizing it was the girl's birthday, but when she reached the great hall she was disappointed to see that none of the people she was looking for was there. The pack was nowhere to be seen.

Deciding to go look for them and figuring they must be on their way down by now Hermione quickly grabbed a slice of toast from the plate on the table in case she didn't have time to come back and left the room in search of them.

* * *

 _Meanwhile in the pack's common room_

"No Embry you have to push the couch to the other side of the room that's where the table with the cake and gifts are going. Jake, that banner is not straight have Sam help you. Seth go get the gifts and organize them at the back of the table once Embry puts it against the wall, and straighten out the couch so this place doesn't look like a pig sty. Paul stop letting all the balloons go they're flying everywhere." As if to prove her point Leah had to duck out of the way of a balloon as she said this.

Paul who growled in annoyance that he lost yet another balloon said, "First of all it's not my fault the balloons keep slipping out of my hands and secondly why is it that you're ordering everyone around but not actually doing anything yourself?"

Leah gave him a look as if to say it was obvious and she felt like she was talking to a three year old. "Because Paul, Emily is making the cake so she told me to keep an eye on all of you. I'm not doing nothing I'm making sure you five don't ruin this party before even has a chance to get started."

At that point Emily walked out from the kitchen with a menacing glare that made all the boys freeze in place. "Leah has the hardest job here Paul, she has to keep you lot in line. Now do what she says and stop complaining. We still have a lot to do." With that said she turned on her heel and marched back into the kitchen.

* * *

Hermione searched the halls from the great hall up to the third floor before noticing the time and running off before she was late to potions with no sign of Seth or the others. Hermione had made it into the potions classroom just in time and took the remaining seat in the back next to Neville.

Snape sent her a withering look as she sat down but otherwise made no indication he was aware of her presence. He then set everyone into partners to work and Hermione was paired with Blaise Zabini. Aside from a bored look he sent her way the two didn't interact and simply made their potion in silence, the only disturbance being Seamus and Dean's potion exploding though it was probably more Seamus's fault to be honest.

By the time class ended Hermione couldn't complain. The Slytherins had ignored her and the fact she hadn't been taunted by the rival house was about the best birthday gift she could have asked for considering how her day had been going thus far.

The rest of the morning and afternoon had gone by much the same way. Nothing particularly exciting or noteworthy happened. Charms, transfiguration, lunch, herbology, and finishing up with Defense Against the Dark Arts.

After her classes Hermione went to the library for some peace before dinner where she took out her journal and pens. Choosing a purple pen, she starts writing. She writes all about arriving at Hogwarts, the boat ride, and the sorting ceremony. Then goes on to tell about Seth and the pack and how close she has gotten to them.

At this point Hermione realized that she still hadn't seen any of them. Normally she would at least pass someone in the hallway on her way to class. In the middle of her thoughts she realized everyone was leaving the library, presumably to go back to the great hall for dinner so Hermione packed up her things and followed them.

She had given up on finding the pack by now and lost herself in her own thoughts so she was shocked to hear someone calling her name. Turning around she saw Sam waving her over to him from down the hall. Looking around quickly just to make sure he was indeed talking to her Hermione walked over to him.

"Hi there Hermione. Do you think you could come with me for a little bit?" he asked her with a gentle smile.

"Um yeah, sure. What for?" she asked confused as to what he wanted and also a bit sad that he didn't realize it was her birthday either though she hid the latter emotion well.

"You'll see." Was all he would tell her. The two walked off in a companionable silence until they reached the portrait that guarded the pack's common room. "The password is 'New Moon', in case you ever need it." As he told her this the portrait swung open. Hermione was touched that they would give her their password and suddenly didn't mind that nobody remembered her birthday because she knew that they still cared about her.

Sam held the portrait open for Hermione as she stepped into the room. After taking her first step inside, just far enough that Sam was able to come in behind her and let the portrait swing shut Hermione froze at the sight in front of her.

"Happy birthday Hermione!" Everyone else had popped out from behind couches and chairs when she entered. Hermione was speechless as her eyes shifted from each person in the room to the decorations, to the cake and wrapped gifts around it.

"You did all this for me?" Hermione questioned, barely able to get the words out.

"Well let me think. Let's see the sign says happy birthday Hermione, we all shouted happy birthday Hermione, and You're the only Hermione _I_ know. What about you guys, we were all talking about the same person right?" Embry looked at Paul who only rolled his eyes.

Seth stepped forward to answer her. "Of course we did all this for you. That's what friends do." Hermione smiled the widest any of them had ever seen as she ran around the room hugging each and every one of them.

"So Hermione," Emily started getting the birthday girl's attention "what do you want to do first cake or presents." Hermione opened her mouth to answer but her stomach beat her to it as it growled reminding her that she never made it down to dinner.

"Well I guess that answers that question." Sam said as Hermione's cheeks flushed a light pink and the others laughed.

Hermione, Leah, and the boys sat down around the common room as Emily lit the candles on the cake and set it down in front of her. They all sang happy birthday and Hermione blew out the candles. "So what did you wish for?" Jake asked.

"I can't tell you or else it won't come true." Hermione replied grinning mischievously at him as Jake pretended to pout.

"Stop being a baby Jacob it's time for presents." Leah ordered. Jake already had a snarky reply ready but was cut off by Embry shoving his gift into Hermione's hands.

Hermione started opening her gifts starting with Embry who got her a framed photo that somebody must have taken of her sitting with the pack at dinner, it was a wizarding picture so it showed them laughing as Embry and Jake made wild gestures as they told a story. Jake got her some books about the tribe's folk tales that he had his father send over from the reservation. Paul gifted her with a scarf, hat, and mitten set in Gryffindor colors. Leah got the girl Leah got her a pair of earring similar to a pair Emily owned that the girl had admired and a keychain with a small wolf charm. Sam and Emily had gotten her some muggle outfits and a new wizarding robe in a deep purple color.

"Okay my turn." Seth said as he sat beside her and handed of the last box. Hermione thanked him and pulled the bow of and stuck it to Jake where she had put all of the previous bows and ribbons as Emily took pictures of the mounting collection. She pulled off the paper to reveal a small rectangular box and tugged the lid off.

Hermione gasped at what she saw inside. At the bottom of the box lay a multi colored woven bracelet that looked to be handmade and had obviously taken a lot of time and effort. "Seth it's amazing. I love it!" Hermione hugged him before he put the bracelet on for her, then she went to hug everyone else.

"Thank you all so much."

"No problem Hermione." Paul said kindly giving her one of his rare smiles.

"It's like we told you. We're your friends and this is what friends do, they make sure they're friends have good birthdays." Leah told her with a smile of her own.

That was the thing about Hermione, she just had this natural ability to make them all happy and sentimental.

"So did you have a good birthday Hermione?" Seth asked her. Hermione looked around at them all. Sam and Emily sitting on the love seat with his arm around her shoulders and her leaning into his side. Paul and Leah each sitting comfortably on lounge chairs. Embry and Jake wrestling on the floor after he made one too many comments about the bows that had still not been taken off. Finally, her eyes landed back at Seth who was looking at her waiting for a response.

"The best." She said with a laugh. The next few hours were spent laughing and enjoying the company before Leah walked Hermione back to Gryffindor tower and they all retired to bed.

* * *

 _Several Days Later_

Hermione sat on the couch in the Gryffindor common room waiting. She had heard Harry and Ron talking about the wizards duel with Draco Malfoy. How stupid could those two get? If they were caught they would lose Gryffindor house points and that was the best case scenario. They could get expelled and then what. They would lose all the friends they have. How could they be so careless to put something like that at stake?

Hermione wasn't about to try to understand what went through their heads but whether they liked her or not she was going to make sure that they didn't lose everything they had here. Gryffindors don't let other Gryffindors do stupid alone.

At the sound of approaching foot steps coming from the boys dorm Hermione slunk down on the couch in case it wasn't Ron and Harry. Seeing it was in fact the two she was waiting for Hermione stood from her spot and flicked a nearby lamp on.

"I can't believe you're going to do this, Harry."

* * *

Everything happened fast from there. Suddenly she was following them out of the portrait then running into Neville who had forgotten the password and was left locked outside only for the Fat Lady to wander off somewhere. Then she and Neville were following Harry and Ron and after that all four of them were running from Filch, proving that Malfoy had set them up.

In a panic Hermione pushed Ron out of the way of a door he was attempting to force open and spelled it open herself. From inside they leaned against the door until they heard Filch leave but for some reason Neville didn't calm down. Turns out the reason why was he was the first one to spot the giant, growling, three headed dog standing on a trap door, though Hermione was the only one to notice that last bit considering the others were each focusing on a head.

Before more could be said they were rushing out of the room and shutting the door tightly behind them. That's when the argument started about why they had that creature in the school at all and Hermione informed them all it seemed to have been put in there to protect something if the trap door was any indication. Shaking her head the girl had had enough of this for one night.

"Now I'm going back to bed before you two come up with another brilliant idea to get us killed, or worse, expelled."

Hermione had a lot to write in her journal tonight, though she didn't think she would mention this bit to her parents. And maybe it would be best not to mention this to the pack either.


	5. Chapter 5

_A/N: Before I begin I would just like to ask a question. Why can't writing English papers be as easy and entertaining as writing fanfiction? I mean seriously I could sit on my computer and type up three chapter consecutively because I actually enjoy it. It took me like six hours to write a four page double spaced rough draft for a paper last night. Now that my mini rant is out of the way I hope you enjoy the chapter._

* * *

It had now been over a month since Hermione's birthday. In fact, it was now the morning of Halloween. Hermione was happier than she had ever been but there was still a lot of tension between herself and the other students, the Gryffindors and Slytherins in particular. There were a couple of fellow first years in the other two houses that she would share small talk with in class but none you would really call a true friend. As far as she was concerned though she had true friendship with the pack and didn't need anything else, though she would be lying if she said she didn't want her housemates to accept her.

Just another average day at Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry. The students get up, they get dressed they go down to breakfast. The professors likely break up some fight or puta wedge in someone prank, probably the Weasley twins'.

Everything was fine until the Gryffindor first years went to their Charms class. Well actually even then nothing had gone wrong quite yet. The lesson began as it normally would with Professor Flitwick giving them an overview of the days lesson and then demonstrating the incantation and wand movement needed to properly perform "wingardium leviosa', the levitation charm.

Swish and flick. Seemed easy enough. At least it seemed easy enough until they were put into pairs… and Hermione got partnered up with none other than Ronald Weasley.

Ron made his displeasure clear to everyone in the room, as if _he_ was her first choice. Other than a slight flush to her cheeks for being singled out and the nervous habit she had picked up off twisting the bracelet on her wrist (the one Seth gave her for her birthday that she never takes off) she refused to give him the satisfaction of a reaction. Ignoring him as everyone moved around the classroom to sit with each other Hermione clenched her fists at the sound of him still grumbling. She took a deep breath and rolled her eyes before giving her undivided attention to Flitwick at the front of the room who once again showed them how to cast the spell and told them to get on with it.

Before Hermione could even pick her own wand up Ron was flailing his around in the air, not to mention he pronounced the spell wrong.

"No no no. You're doing it all wrong, you're going to poke somebody's eye out and its leviOsa, not leviosA."

Ron's face turned redder than his trademark Weasley hair. "If you're so smart let's see you do it then."

Hermione gave him a bored look, hiding her own hesitation, but none the less picked up her wand and cast the charm herself and right before her eyes the feather placed in front of her on the desk lifted into the air upon her command and Hermione smiled.

"Well done, everyone look. Miss Granger has done it, ten points for Gryffindor." Flitwick praised the bushy haired brunette. Out of the corner of her eye said brunette saw Ron huff and slouch against the desk but even his rotten attitude couldn't get her down.

She continued to levitate the feather for a few second longer until a loud boom startled her making her lose her focus and ended with the feather gently floating back to the table top. Turning in her seat Hermione now saw a very singed Seamus Finnegan and Harry trying to hold in his laughter. "Um, I think we're going to need another feather professor."

The new feather was acquired and Seamus was sent to go clean himself up. Nothing else of particular interest happened again in class. Not until class was over and everyone was filing out.

Hermione was the last to leave the room after carefully putting her new quill her parents had gotten her away and ensuring it wouldn't snap.

She quickly followed the trail of Gryffindors out into the courtyard as they made their way to the next class of the day. That's when she heard it

Ron Weasley was walking with Harry, Seamus, Dean, and Neville. "She an absolute horror. It's no wonder she hasn't got any friends." The words had barely left his mouth before Hermione was speeding past them, knocking into Harry in her haste, in order to get out of sight before anyone saw the tears start to fall.

What did Ron Weasley know anyway? He was wrong. She had friends, a lot of them. The pack were all her friends and Seth was her best friend. But then why did that fact not make his words hurt any less?

She was just barely able to keep the waterworks from flowing until she found the abandoned girls bathroom. At least if someone were going to see her break down it would only be one person, or rather one ghost.

Unfortunately she may have been better off with the girls in her dorm. The second she was inside with the door shut Moaning myrtle came flying out of the U-bend in her toilet screaming at Hermione for being so loud. Once she saw the state the girl was in she started laughing hysterically and taunted her.

With a sob Hermione threw herself into a stall and locked it. She didn't know how long she had been in there but in the time that she was the only disturbance was Padma Patil, Parvati's twin sister, coming in when she heard the crying. She was kind enough and tried to get Hermione to come out but when Hermione refused to come out and couldn't calm herself enough to tell her what was wrong Padma left her to herself.

* * *

 _Meanwhile in the great hall at dinner time_

The pack was seated at various tables as per usual. Today Seth and Embry were at Gryffindor but what was odd was that Hermione was not present. What was even stranger was that they hadn't seen her since they parted ways after breakfast. This combined put Seth a bit on edge.

"Would you stop you're making me dizzy just watching you." Embry complained

Seth stopped whipping his head around in search of his imprint and turned to face Embry with a sheepish smile on his face. "Sorry I just haven't seen her all day. We always talk in between her transfiguration and potions classes but I didn't even see her walking with the other first years today. I'm starting to get worried."

"Obviously." Embry replied blankly. "You need to relax, she's a big girl and can take care of herself. Maybe she just got tired of seeing your ugly mug all the time." The last comment was made in jest but Seth hadn't heard it as he was too busy listening in on a conversation between Potter, Weasley, and one of the Patil sisters a few seats down.

"Oh are you talking about Hermione Granger?" the girl questioned. "She's been in the bathroom all afternoon crying. I tried to get her to come out but she wouldn't open the door or tell me what was wrong." With that Padma walked away to her own table as Harry gave Ron a pointed look.

Seth couldn't help but think 'What was that about?' but he didn't focus on it too long because what the Ravenclaw had said finally processed through his mind. His Hermione was in a bathroom crying and had been in there all afternoon.

Seth had a feeling the red head first year had something to do with it after the look he shared with Potter but he would deal with that later.

He had just stood up to go and find her when none other than Professor Quirrell came sprinting into the room and he froze staring at the obviously terrified man.

The professor was both still and silent for a few moments only panting from the exertion of the run. "Troll! In the dungeon! Thought you ought to know." And promptly fainted in a crumpled heap in the middle of the floor.

The entire hall froze before chaos broke out and students were screaming from every direction. Before anything could get too out of hand Dumbledore stood and demanded silence before ordering the prefects to lead the students back to their common rooms and for the staff to assist him in finding and apprehending the troll.

Most of the pack followed Dumbledore but Seth grabbed Embry and yanked him in the other direction quickly explaining what he had over heard about Hermione. The two raced off to find her but unfortunately were clueless as to which bathroom she was in.

Lucky for them two students seemed to realize the danger she was in not knowing about the troll and well and more importantly had an idea as to where she was. They snuck off without prefects, professors, or anyone from the pack noticing and ran off to attempt a rescue.

* * *

When Hermione was calm enough she slowly opened the stall taking in a few deep breaths to calm her nerves and wiped her hand across her eyes to catch any remaining tears. It wasn't until she heard a lock click shut that she turned her head enough to see a giant mountain troll standing in front of her and staring her down.

It didn't seem to realize what it was looking at but when it did it raised it's arm and with a grunt swung the club in it's hand down just barely missing Hermione who dove under a sink and broke the stall she had been standing in front of seconds earlier into splinters.

As she dove out of the way Hermione let out a scream praying that someone heard her and would come and save her.

Fate seemed to be on her side because just as the troll pulled it's arm up in the air to strike again the door burst open and as Hermione crawled back into the corner Harry and Ron rushed in.

"Hermione look out!" Harry shouted at her in a panic. Looking back to the troll Hermione rolled out from under the sink seconds before it caved in on impact.

"Help!" she shouted.

Harry reacted instantly and to the surprise and utter shock of both Hermione and Ron jumped on the back off the troll and proceeded to stick his wand up his nose. The troll grabbed Harry by his ankle and started swinging his around and trying to hit him. "Do something!" He yelled over the swooshing sound ringing in his ears.

"What?" Ron questioned looking to Hermione for an answer.

"Swish and flick." Hermione answered him in a hurry, demonstrating the movement herself.

Without complaint or hesitation Ron did as he was told, his pronunciation just as she had directed him earlier in class.

"Wingardium leviOsa!" with the swish and flick of his wand the club in the trolls hand floated out of it's grasp and the trolls head followed the club up, up, up. Until finally it dropped and landed dead center on top of its head and knocked him out. As he fell Harry held on for dear life landing on its back. He stood and walked to the trolls head. He pulled his wand out of the beasts nose as Ron gave it a light kick to see if it was dead but as it stirred slightly realized it was only knocked out. Hermione carefully stood up out of the rubble of the sink. She had a couple of scratches on her cheeks and they were all soaking wet from the broken pipes but aside from that they were all unharmed.

They all looked to each other now but before anyone could speak the door flung open, hitting the wall with the force, and Quirrell, Snape, and McGonagall burst through the door.

They stopped and stared in shock looking from the children to the troll and back.

McGonagall was barely able to speak. "Miss Granger?"

Hermione knew the transfiguration professor would never doubt her so she did the thing she thought she had to do. She lied to a teacher.

"It was all my fault professor. I read about mountain trolls and thought I could handle it but I was wrong. If Harry and Ron hadn't come and found me I'd probably be dead."

McGonagall was in shock and didn't know what to say, Snape didn't look like he was convinced she was telling the truth but said nothing, and Quirrel had yet to take his eyes off of the troll.

McGonagall snapped out of her stupor and began chastising Hermione. "Be that as it may, it was an extremely foolish thing to do. I would have expected more rational behavior on your part and I am very disappointed in you." Hermione flinched at the low blow. "Five points will be taken from Gryffindor for your serious lack of judgement. You are dismissed, now back to your common room." Hermione refused to meet anyone's eyes as she scurried from the room and as she left vaguely heard her say something to Harry and Ron about "sheer dumb luck"

As Hermione walked back to the tower ringing the water from her robes she bumped into Embry who immediately grabbed her up in a hug and spun her around. "What are you doing?" she shouted as he set her back on the ground and steadied her as she swayed in her spot.

Before he answered Seth came flying around the corner and grabbed her up in a hug himself, also twirling her around but he was more hesitant to let her go.

"We've been looking everywhere for you after you weren't at dinner when we found out about the troll. We heard someone saying you were in the bathroom crying so we've been searching the bathrooms trying to find you. What happened?" Embry paused in his questioning for a moment. "And why are you soaking wet?"

At this point Seth had put Hermione down but was still hugging her to him not caring that he was getting wet. Hermione hesitated but told them the truth, all of it. Charms class, Ron's cruel words, crying in the bathroom, and being saved by Harry and Ron.

Embry and Seth were both furious but kept their cool for Hermione's sake. The last thing she needed right now was for them to lose their tempers.

They had planned to go have a little 'chat' with Ron but were stopped by Hermione begging them to leave it be because after all "he did save my life" she reasoned with them.

The relented and walked her back to the common room where they ordered her to go put dry clothes on before she got sick. She agreed and headed into the portrait hole and up to her room receiving some odd looks but not giving any of them a chance to question her.

Seth and Embry went back to their own common room and told the others everything. It took all of them all of their will power to respect Hermione's wishes and not rush off to Gryffindor common room and deal with Ron themselves.

The next day they would find out at Breakfast that Hermione was now friends with Harry and Ron. When asked why she responded with "There are some things you can't go through together and _not_ become friends and fighting a giant troll in a girls bathroom is one of them."

They would never say it to Hermione but they were still weary of her being around Ron and would make sure to keep a close eye on him but she seemed to be happier and at this point the rest of Gryffindor seemed to lighten up with her. Her dorm mates and she still weren't friends and she didn't have many conversation with the other boys too much but it was a start.

She would work on homework with them and could sometimes be found talking with Neville about the latest herbology lesson. She over all seemed to be a lot happier, she was smiling more and it wasn't only when she was with the pack as it had been before.

They would be cautious for sure but maybe it would be okay so long as that smile stayed on her face.


	6. Chapter 6

Now that Hermione wasn't being cast aside entirely by Gryffindor she had found the common room to be much more pleasant. That's not to say she stopped taking her usual night time walks with the pack but she didn't feel like she had to hide in her dorm when she was back in the tower.

In the last few days Hermione had grown closer with Harry and Ron. When she wasn't helping them with homework they could often be found outside walking around the lake or sitting in the shade.

They had been minding their own business on a sunny day under what had quickly come to be 'their' tree. Ron was playing with a muggle rubix cube he had got off Hermione as the aforementioned witch worked on an essay that wasn't due for another week and a half and Harry was reading a book himself that Hermione had suggested to him from the library, 'Quidditch Through the Ages'.

There really was no reasonable explanation for anyone to be anything but pleasant just then. Though Snape always seemed to be an exception as he stalked over scowling at any student who looked at him too long. After some rather rude words that were normal in the Slytherin head's vocabulary he confiscated Harry's book, making up some fake rule that you were not allowed to bring library books outside. Hermione was about to protest this when Ron nudged her ribs and shook his head in the negative as Harry scowled at their professors retreating, limping form.

Over all things had been going really well for Hermione. Harry on the other hand wasn't doing too great at the moment. Right now he was too concerned about the upcoming quidditch match. The first quidditch match of the year. The quidditch match where he would be playing in the first game of Gryffindor vs Slytherin.

The others at the table were trying to make him calm down. Well all except Seamus who remained blunt as ever. "You better eat up Harry, it's always the seeker that get the worse injuries."

"Thanks for that Seamus." Harry deadpanned ass Neville hit the back of the Irish boys head.

"Seamus's lack of tact aside, I'm sure you'll be fine Harry but he is right about one thing, you really should eat." Hermione said from beside Harry.

"Don't worry Harry we won't let any bludgers do you in." Fred told him.

"Yeah we don't want the boy who lived to become the boy who lost the match for his team by falling off a broom." George smiled in a way that was meant to be encouraging.

"Uh yeah, sure guys." Harry grabbed a piece of toast and got up to follow the team out to the pitch with Oliver Wood in the lead.

Hermione watched him walk off stiff with nerves and gave him a pitying look before her attention moved across the hall to a group of figures walking towards her. Hermione smiled as the pack sidled up beside her and the others.

" Hey there kiddies." Embry teased them. "You all ready to head out to the field?"

"You bet, we even made Harry a banner." Dean smiled and pulled out an old bed sheet from his ruck sack. Painted on it was 'Potter for President' and a large lion that was charmed to roar and the paint to flash."

Seamus stood along with Ron, Dean, Neville, and Hermione. "Dean painted it but Hermione charmed it to move."

"Skills." Seth complimented as the guys all gave her high fives. "Well what are we waiting for? Move out!"

They all walked out and down to the quidditch pitch. Once they arrived they split up with Seth, Emily, Sam, and Leah going with the Gryffindors up to their section of the stand and the other half splitting off with them to go sit among the Slytherins to avoid showing favorites. Even though everyone knew just where their favoritism lied because of their connection with Hermione.

House favoritism aside, everyone was excited for the first match of the school year and to see just how good this first year was to be made the youngest seekers in a century.

Hagrid soon joined the Gryffindors in the stands to cheer on Harry, binoculars in hand, and shortly after his arrival the match started. Hermione for the most part had her eyes on Harry but when he had yet to move after a while let her eyes wander to the others playing. She tuned into the commentary provided by Gryffindor house's very own Lee Jordan was providing and couldn't help but laugh.

She soon noticed the others around her laughing as well but they weren't watching the game at the moment. Their eyes instead were on McGonagall in the teacher's box as she tried to wrestle the magic microphone away from Lee. Even across the stands Hermione could make out the rest of the pack sitting with the Slytherins in hysterics as they watched Lee hold the microphone out of the transfiguration professors reach as he promised to control himself.

Hermione's attention wasn't drawn away from the teacher's box until Hagrid spoke. "I don't know what Harry thinks he's doing up there."

Hermione put her hand over her eyes to block out the sun as she looked higher up in the sky. She gasped in shock and fear when she saw Harry's broom of all things bucking him around as if it were about to throw him off.

Seth looked down at Hermione when he heard her gasp and followed her gaze to see the Weasley twins now trying to get Harry onto one of their brooms only for him to fly higher whenever they got close. Eventually they gave up and resorted to circling underneath him ready to catch him should he fall off.

Seth alerted Sam, Emily, and Leah to the distressed boy in the sky but there was really nothing they could do from their positions but stare in horror. Suddenly Hermione pulled Hagrid's binoculars from him but instead of looking back to Harry she was looking across the stand in the crowd.

Seth must have missed something because suddenly she called over her shoulder "Leave it to me!" as she ran off.

Hermione didn't bother taking the time to explain her plan and instead made her way as quickly as possible beneath the stands where Snape was sitting and muttering with his wand pointed toward Harry. In her haste she knocked into Professor Quirrell and knocked him over but didn't bother apologizing as she continued the last few yards until she was below Snape's seat.

She quickly muttered a spell under her breath that she had read in one of her books and little blue flames shot out from her wand effectively lighting Severus Snape's robes on fire.

In his panic Snape quickly lost concentration and consequently control over Harry's broom.

Hermione made her way back to the stands as quickly as she could to avoid suspicion but she need not have worried. By the time she got back nobody would pay her any attention bar a select few as Harry had caught the snitch only moments after regaining control of his broom.

Well catch may be a bit of a stretch, after all, he nearly swallowed the flying golden ball.

* * *

As Hermione got back to her seat Hagrid seemed none the wiser over what she had done but was simply glad Harry hadn't been flattened into a pancake from impact with the ground. Ron was looking at her incredulously, having watched her run through the stands and seen the smoke rise around Snape, managed to put two and two together and figure out what she had done.

Seth and co. weren't as lucky to have seen what had been done but were sure she had done something to help Harry. Seeing as both she and the new seeker were unharmed they didn't see a reason to bring it up again as everyone around them began cheering for the winning team. Gryffindor!

* * *

Later that night the victory party organized by Fred, George, and Lee was winding down and the trio took the opportunity, at Hermione's suggestion, to finish their charms essays for the next day. Of course Hermione had already finished hers and was just helping Harry and Ron who put it off to the last minute but that's beside the point.

Harry had just finished his own essay and while Hermione continued to help Ron with his decided to go see if he could get his book back from Snape. Hermione and Ron didn't think anything of it when he told them this and left the room, they waved him off then went back to work.

They would have gone on with the rest of their night not expecting any more excitement after the quidditch game but Harry rushing back into the common room and dragging them off to an isolated corner crushed that idea.

Harry proceeded to tell them about how he saw Filch and Snape in the teachers lounge and the bite mark on Snape's leg. They deducted that it must have been from the three headed dog guarding the third floor corridor and that it must have been the reason he was limping. Harry went on to accuse him of letting the troll loose and getting bitten while trying to steal whatever the dog was protecting.

Seeing as it was still light out they made up their minds to go and talk to Hagrid about their suspicions.

That proved less productive than they hoped at first as Hagrid insisted that Snape was trusted by Dumbledore and was therefore to be trustworthy. Ron immediately started to argue with him. "Then why was he bitten by that beast?"

"Fluffy has a name you know." All four occupants of the room widened their eyes at this statement. "I should not have said that." Hagrid admitted.

"Hagrid, that giant dog is your pet?" Hermione asked the bearded man.

"Yes he's mine. But I don't know what he's protecting. That's between Dumbledore and Nicolas Flamel." The kids grinned widely at his slip and Hagrid picked up on this and his own mistake. "I shouldn't have said that. I should not have said that!" Hagrid quickly ushered them out and ordered them back to the castle before they could ask him any more questions.

* * *

The very next day the three added one more activity to their daily schedules. They were going to find out Who Nicolas Flamel was and what Fluffy was hiding.

As could be expected it was very slow going and eve after looking through dozens of books in the library they had still come up with nothing. This is what they did over the next two weeks. Breakfast, classes, lunch, more classes, research, dinner, homework, and more research. This of course also came with complaining on Ron's part but Hermione and Harry had quickly learned to ignore him.

Soon however the lack of results started to wear on Hermione and harry as well. This inspired Hermione to ask the pack. Figuring it couldn't hurt to try and that they were, of nothing else, the least likely to rat them out Harry and Ron agreed with her.

So when Hermione first met up with the pack that night for their daily catch up she had a lot on her mind. This much was obvious to all of them.

"Is something wrong Hermione?" Emily asked her with worry clear in her tone.

"Oh no, everything's fine. I've just been trying to do some research and it hasn't been going too well." She confided, hoping for one of them to ask her what she was researching.

Lucky for her Jake could be very useful sometimes. "Well what are you researching?"

"I'm trying to find out about Nicolas Flamel."

Their reaction was instantaneous and obvious. They knew something but from the stiffening of their posture Hermione lost hope that they would provide her with the information she needed willingly.

"There's no reason for you to be looking into him Hermione." Sam told her in his alpha tone that she, up until this point, had only heard used toward the pack. Now with it directed at her any hopes she may have still had of getting answers from them were erased. They for sure knew what she wanted to know. "You are to stop now."

"Hermione that's not something you need to worry about. I don't know what you're up to but stop. Just let it be. Okay?" Seth told her gently after glaring at Sam for the way he spoke to her.

Hermione 'agreed' and they carried on with their night as usual.

When she returned to the common room she would inform Harry and Ron of what had happened and that their plan had been a bust. If they wanted answers they would have to find them on their own.


	7. Chapter 7

The weather had changed once again with the season and Hogwarts now had a fresh layer of snow covering its grounds. The Christmas holidays were upon them and students were wishing their friends who would be staying back at the school goodbye before they headed off to the train to take them home.

Hermione met up with Ron and Harry in the common room before she left reminding them to research Nicholas Flamel while she was away. They promised they would though Hermione had her doubts of how hard they would look but thought it best to keep these thoughts to herself. With a final goodbye to both boys Hermione left the common room and made her way down to the foyer where she met up with the Pack

Rather than staying at the school the pack would be spending their holidays back home in Forks. She took her time to say goodbye to and hug each of them ending with Seth. "Have fun Princess and try not to miss me too much." He told her as he knelt down and hugged her.

Hermione hugged him back as she replied. "I'll do my best, and you try not to go crazy without me around." She smiled at him and he smiled back.

"I'll do my best."

With last wishes of 'Happy Christmas' Hermione wandered off with the crowd of students headed to Hogsmeade station to board the train while the pack worked their way up to Dumbledore's office where they would be using the floo network to get back to the states.

They knocked on the door and upon being invited in entered the headmasters office where he then wished them a good trip and handed Sam the pot of Floo powder.

"The floo network will be open throughout the holidays so you can return whenever you are ready to do so." Dumbledore informed them.

"Thank you Albus." Sam thanked the old wizard as the others started going one by one through the fire place.

Emily went first followed shortly behind by Leah. Then Paul, Embry, Jake, and Seth while Sam stayed behind a few more minutes to talk to Dumbledore.

Seth was happy to be back but his joy was quickly put on the back burner when he came out of the fire place back on the res when it seemed that Embry had failed to move out of the way resulting in Jake knocking into him and the two falling down and that resulting in Seth not seeing them on the floor and tripping over them as he walked out.

Leah, Emily, and Paul simply shook their heads at the three while most of the remaining occupants of the room, consisting of the rest of the pack, their families, and the elders, still seemed to be a bit shocked that they came from the fore place even though they had been warned of this method of travel in advance. The only exception being Quil who had fallen on the floor himself laughing.

Embry quickly pushed Jake and Seth off of him only to tackle the still laughing Quil and the two then started an impromptu wrestling match on the floor. Seth stood up while Jake joined the two boys rolling around.

Seth went to say hello to his mother while Emily chastised the other three and told Embry and Jake to say hello. By the time Sam came through everyone had calmed down and greetings had been passed around.

Once everyone had finally settled and were seated in various places across the room the questions started. Everyone who had remained behind wanted to know all about this magical school.

"So did anything exciting happen?" Seth and Leah's mother questioned.

Embry and Jacob shared a look before smirking at Seth who groaned in response, knowing exactly what they were thinking and wishing they would let him tell everyone about his imprint himself but knowing it was a lost cause.

"Oh I'd say something pretty interesting happened." Jake said vaguely wiggling his eyebrows at Seth who blushed and looked to the floor. The rest of the Hogwarts pack chuckled and waited to see how this would play out.

"Very interesting. Wouldn't you say so Seth?" Embry nudged Seth in the rib as the younger boy gave a grunt.

"What happened?" Sue asked confused at her son's odd behavior.

"Let's just say Seth here is REALLY glad he went to Hogwarts."

Quil looked back and forth from the three boys to the others who were still chuckling and back once again to Seth before it clicked in his head and he started chuckling to himself too.

"Wait to Seth." He said.

"What are you guys talking about?" Brady asked just as confused as most of the people in the room.

Seth, Jake, and Embry all opened their mouths to reply but Quil beat them all to it. "Isn't it obvious? He imprinted."

"Is this true Seth?" Billy questioned. Seth nodded his head a small smile gracing his lips.

"Oh my baby imprinted! You're growing up so fast!" Sue cried as she launched herself at her youngest child and squeezed him tight.

"Relax mom, calm down." Seth said as she loosened her grip on him and he was able to breathe properly again.

"I want to hear all about her."

"Okay, okay mom give me a minute." Seth waited for his mother to sit down and the congratulations from the rest of the room to come to a stop before he spoke.

"Her name is Hermione Granger, she's twelve and she's a first year. She's my best friend. She's a muggle born so she didn't know about magic until she got her letter inviting her to Hogwarts and she says she didn't have any friends before she came to Hogwarts. We were her first friends at the school," Seth paused her and gestured to the others seated around him. "and for a while her only friends but she eventually became best friends with two other boys, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, but that's a story for another time. She's really smart, the smartest in her year actually and she's always in the library but we hang out all the time."

Leah added her own thoughts of the girl in question. "She's the sweetest girl I've ever met and we all adore her." This earned nods of agreement from the others as well.

"She sounds like a lovely girl and I just can't wait to meet her." Sue squealed.

At Seth's exasperated look Billy turned to Sue. "Take it easy there Sue. They only met a few months ago and I doubt she'll be coming here very soon, give it some time." Sue seemed a bit put out for a brief second but regained her composure quickly, realizing the truth to Billy's statement.

"Come on everyone, we can hear all about Hogwarts at the bonfire tonight so everyone go get ready." Old Man Quil ordered.

All those returning from the school went home to drop of their things and change while everyone else headed to the beach to set up. By the time the others got there everything was ready and they all sat around the large fire.

Billy started off by telling the traditional tribal stories before they got into the most anticipated part of the evening. Everyone wanted to know what it was like to be surrounded by magic. They all told different stories.

They started off with the sorting of the first years. They told them about the talking hat and it's song then went on to recall Dumbledore's few words before the feast appeared in front of them, and boy was it a feast! Then the school song and how everyone sang to a different tune, using the Weasley twins' as an example with their funeral ballad.

Then Paul started telling them about what had been dubbed as the 'broom incident' where an owl scared Hermione and she fell off her broom only for Seth to catch her just in time. You could see the concern on their faces as the others heard this story and the stiffening of those involved as they remembered the fear they held for the girl and their worry that she would impact with the ground.

Figuring they should explain what they mentioned about Harry and Ron earlier they told them what they knew of the troll next. How Ron had insulted Hermione causing her to run off to the bathroom where a troll that had somehow, though they still didn't understand just how it got loose, escaped into the dungeons. How Harry and Ron went looking for Hermione and saved her from the troll and Hermione lied to a professor, which they assured them was very out of character, to keep them out of trouble. Finishing up that tale with their concerns but Hermione's insistence that you can't fight a mountain troll together and not become friends. They did admit however that things seemed to be getting better for her socially.

Deciding to get onto happier topics Seth brought up how they found out her when her birthday was and threw her a party. Emily recalled how her eyes lit up and she had never seen her happier than in that moment.

The next story was from Jake. He recounted the time he, Seth, and Hermione pranked the others. While Sam and Emily were out on a walk and everyone else had patrol the three of them were hanging out in the pack's common room and got bored. Thus, the crazy idea that somehow worked was born. They had to work fast before anyone got back but they went to each person's room and Jake and Seth took different pieces of furniture like tables and chairs and held them against various parts of the wall and ceiling while Hermione used a temporary sticking charm to hold them there until she was ready to reverse it later on. They even managed to balance a table, chair, vase, and photo one on top of the other hanging down from the ceiling in Leah's room. When everyone finally returned they were less than amused but after Hermione fixed everything, and gave them an innocent stare, they were able to find the humor in it and laugh about it now.

The last story they told was how they started a tradition of having a monthly game night where they spent the night from straight after dinner to just before Hermione had to get back for curfew playing different games including but not limited to Monopoly, cards, Sorry, Scrabble, and Twister.

The fun went on long into the night before the first people started heading home. Eventually everyone made it back to their own house and their own bed. After all, the holiday was only just beginning.

* * *

 _Christmas Day_

Seth woke up bright and early the morning of December 25th. He hopped out of bed and made his way down stairs to the living room where his mother and Leah were just walking out of the kitchen with steaming mugs in their hands.

As Seth met them at the doorway his sister handed him a mug of his own with hot chocolate and marshmallows and the family of three settled themselves around the tree in the middle of the room. Sue knelt in front of the tree and handed out the gifts. Seth and Leah were pleasantly surprised to find that they each had gifts from Hermione and hoped that she like what they had gotten her.

After the gifts were unwrapped and the recipients thanked the givers the three migrated into the kitchen where Sue started making Christmas pancakes and her children set the table. As Sue flipped the pancakes she looked over her shoulder to speak to her children. "So Billy and I were thinking that it would be nice if we all went to visit Charlie today before going over to Sam's house for dinner since he's going to be alone this year without Bella around. What do you say?"

Leah and Seth looked at each other then back at their mother and nodded their confirmation.

"Sounds great mom." Seth told her.

"Yeah that'll be nice." Leah told her mom with a small smile.

"Great Billy and Jake will be here around noon and we'll head over then." Sue smiled as she dished out the pancakes and sat down to eat.

* * *

Jake and Billy had arrived just after noon the group of five piled into Sue's van and drove into town.

As they neared the Swan residence Seth, Leah, and Jake all tensed at scrunched their noses in disgust. Sue looked at them through the rear-view mirror. "What wrong?"

"Leach" was Jake's one-word answer.

Everyone tensed up and the three wolves were about to jump out of the car and race off after the scent when Billy stopped them. "Stop!"

They looked at him in shock and confusion. Billy merely pointed to the vehicle parked in front of Charlie's house.

"Isn't that Edward's car?" Seth asked. Jacob confirmed this as Sue parked the car and the five of them got out. Jake helped Billy into his wheelchair and they all strolled up to the door cautiously.

Before they even had the chance to knock on the front door Alice Cullen was pulling it open.

"What are you doing here?" Seth asked bluntly but not unkindly.

Alice stayed silent in the second it took for Edward and Bella to appear behind her. "We came to see Charlie so he wouldn't be alone on Christmas and so he could spend time with Nessie."

"But the last time Charlie saw Renesmee she looked a lot younger than she did when you guys left let alone what she must look like now. How did you explain that?" Jacob asked.

"We told him the truth." Bella said and received wide eyed stares in return.

Edward out a calming hand up, having heard the outraged thoughts that they were not able to yet voice out loud. "Not everything. We told him what was necessary. He didn't want to know anything else."

Sue was the first one to regain her composure. What exactly is necessary?"

"That None of us will age," here Bella gestured to herself, Alice, and Edward "and that for now at least Renesmee will age a lot faster than a normal kid would."

Charlie chose that moment to step into the hall with Renesmee by his side and everyone turned to him as he spoke, all of them having been too focused on the conversation to notice him walking over before. "I know it's supernatural and honestly I really don't want to know anything else. I can see Bella and my granddaughter and that's all that matters." Charlie spoke up in his usual quiet, gruff tone.

Billy and Sue looked at each other and then back to Charlie after they finished their silent conversation. Billy kept his eyes on Charlie as he spoke. "Well then I guess there's something else you should know." Billy turned to Jake and nodded at him. Jake nodded in acknowledgement of what his father wanted him to do. Jake went to pull his shirt off and just got it over his head when Bella started shouting.

"Not here! Go in the woods." And she pointed toward the backyard as Edward covered Renesmee's eyes and Charlies went wide as saucers when he realized what Jacob was about to do. "Jacob what the hell-"

Jacob had already jogged off into the tree line while Billy and Sue calmed Charlie. Through this Leah rolled her eyes at the boy and Seth attempted to hide his laughter. Alice just shook her head in exasperation as she encouraged everyone to move into the backyard where the neighbors wouldn't see anything.

A minute passed after they all gathered at the edge of the tree line until a large russet colored wolf came galloping over to them. Charlie jumped when he saw the horse sized creature. He froze inn shock when the wolf stopped beside Billy's wheelchair and stood calmly by his side.

Nobody said anything, giving Charlie time for what he saw before him to sink in. "Jake?" he asked. The wolf let out a short bark before nodding its head and letting its tongue hang out of its mouth. When Charlie figured out it was him Jacob strolled back into the woods and when he emerged again he was back to normal with his clothes on.

"So you mean to tell me that all those wolf sightings were actually you?" Charlie asked.

"Well, me and the rest of the pack." Jacob answered him.

"Pack?"

Billy answered his old friend now. "Yes, the pack. Jacob, Seth, Leah, and several of the boys from the reservations are La Push's guardians. They protect the tribe." Billy purposely left out that they mainly protect them from vampires.

Carlie now turned to the two Clearwater kids. "You too?" they both nodded. He took a deep breath and looked around at everyone assembled. "And you all knew about all of this?" he asked referring to both the pack's secret and the Cullen's secret. They all nodded their heads.

"Okay. Well let's just keep this all on a need to know basis. But are there any other supernatural things I _should_ be aware of. Alice, Bella, and Edward shook their heads in the negative but Seth put a hand up.

"Actually, there is. You know how some of us have been working at a boarding school?"

Charlie was cautious in his answer. "Yes"

"Well it's actually a magic school for witches and wizards. We're there as extra security staff."

At this point Charlie just nodded his head, considering he just saw his granddaughter who aged far faster than she should have and a boy he has known since he was born just transform into a wolf this was the most normal thing he had heard all day. At least there was no one casting spells in his yard this time.

"Well then," Alice's tinkling voice cut through the tension "why don't we all head back inside then." Charlie agreed and everyone headed inside the house.

When everyone was situated in the living room Billy spoke up once more about the previous topic. "So Charlie, now that you know that the wolves are actually the kids we'd appreciate it if you stopped with the hunting trips looking for them whenever something happens in the woods. It's not them causing any problems and it's a lot of work to cover up their tracks, I'm getting too old for it." Billy sent a raised eyebrow at the three wolves present.

"Uh, yeah Billy, sorry about that." Billy nodded and then they all moved on to happier things.

They handed out presents and opened those that belonged to them. Even Leah couldn't hold back a slight smile at Renesmee's excitement and Charlie was ecstatic.

When all the gifts were unwrapped and all the thanks were said Charlie started a fire and read a book to Renesmee as the others talked amongst themselves.

Seth lost focus on his conversation with Jacob and Edward as he looked over to Renesmee as Charlie read her one of the Christmas books that had been laying around. Seeing how absorbed the little human vampire hybrid was in the story Seth's thoughts drifted off to another little bookworm and a small smile tilted his lips upward.

Edward couldn't help but pick up on some stray thoughts and focused on them now out of curiosity, ignoring Jacob who, after looking between the two of them, realized what was going on and chuckled.

"Well congratulations Seth." Edward said quietly so only the wolves and vampires in the room could hear. Seth blushed a deep red and Jake guffawed at his younger friend's embarrassment catching the attention of everyone else in the room.

Based on Seth's blush Leah, Sue, and Billy assumed what they were talking about. Alice and Bella put the pieces together themselves too.

Bella went to hug Seth as she and Alice congratulated him as well. Throughout this Charlie sat with Renesmee still in his lap, their book forgotten as the two looked at everyone else curiously. "Uh what are you congratulating him for?"

"Seth imprinted." Jake answered him, not that this term made any sense to him.

"And what exactly does that mean?" Charlie asked.

Jake summed up an imprint similarly to how he described it to Bella. "It's something the pack does but it's really rare. You meet someone and it's like gravity moves suddenly. It's not the earth holding you here anymore, she does… You become whatever she needs you to be, whether that's a protector, or a friend, or whatever. Seth imprinted on a first-year girl who goes to Hogwarts, Hermione Granger and they quickly became best friends." Jacob made a point to not say anything about any emotions more than friendship or protector. Not that there was anything wrong with it or that Hermione and Seth's relationship was anywhere near that point but it seemed like it may be a bit much for Charlie.

"It's like you have a connection with them. Hermione was having a really hard time when she first came to Hogwarts but Seth was her first friend and made her feel like she belonged. They're practically inseparable now." Leah added as Seth continued to blush.

Taking pity on her son Sue steered the conversation off of Seth and Hermione and the rest of the day went on without a hitch, even if there were a couple of disgusted faces made when a wolf or vampire got too much of a whiff of the other.

When the sun started to set the wolves and elders said their goodbyes and headed home to shower, and get the scent of vampire off of them, before heading over to Sam and Emily's house for dinner with the rest of the pack, elders, and their families.


End file.
